Why Game of Thrones won't win any Emmy Awards tonight

Game of Thrones broke Emmy records last year and won best drama for the second time in a row. But during Sunday night’s 69th annual Primetime Emmy Awards, the HBO mega-hit doesn’t have so much as a single nomination.

No, the Television Academy’s voting system wasn’t hacked — HBO’s decision to push the recently concluded seventh season from its usual spring slot to the summer made the episodes ineligible for the 2017 awards (a program had to air episodes before May 31st to qualify for this year’s ceremony).

That’s one reason why the decision to delay season 7 was such a big deal — for the first time since 2011, GoT would be absent from the Emmys. So the most recent season won’t be honored by the Emmys until this time next year (Academy voters will just have to remember how epic “The Spoils of War” was when voting on the 2018 nominees).

HBO’s move also means the night’s top drama category is now wide open, giving HBO’s Westworld, Netflix’s Stranger Things and House of Cards, Hulu’s The Handmaids Tale, NBC’s This Is Us and AMC’s Better Call Saul a shot at the crown.